The Covenant pope?

by John E. Phelan Jr.

The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope
Austen Ivereigh
New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2014

In the wake of the long and increasingly controversial papacy of Pius XII, the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church selected as pope an aging Italian cardinal named Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. They expected the 76-year-old to be a kind of caretaker, easily controlled by the powerful curia. But there they were mistaken.

Pope John XXIII had no intention quietly living out his papacy. He recognized that the Roman Catholic Church was failing in its engagement of the modern world and with the short time he had he determined to throw open the windows of the ancient, creaky institution and let in some fresh air. John’s varied career had taken him to Bulgaria, Greece and Istanbul as papal nuncio and finally to post-war France. In France he was immensely popular with everyone from the traditional French Catholics to the sophisticated secular and mostly atheist artists, journalists and politicians. He understood the diverse world outside of the Vatican and was determined that under his watch the church would not slumber but awaken to that world. The result was the ecumenical council Vatican II.

The outcome of Vatican II certainly was a new openness to the world. Stunning new statements were made on the relationship between Jews and Catholics as well as the Catholic Church’s “separated brothers” among the Protestants. Vatican II and its often chaotic aftermath have shaped the conversation for the Roman Church to this day. Following John’s successor, Paul VI, another long, conservative pontificate followed by a shorter but equally conservative rule appeared to wrench the windows closed. Theological correctness rather than compassionate openness seemed to shape the late 20th and early 21st century church under John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Benedict’s surprising resignation was followed by the election of another elderly cardinal, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who took the name Francis. Although Bergoglio was of Italian extraction he was born in Argentina to a working class immigrant family. He, too, was elected at the age of 76, and like John XXIII had no intention of being a caretaker!

Austen Ivereigh, a British journalist and advisor to British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, has long studied the Catholic Church in Argentina. He had also long observed and studied their unusual bishop. When Francis was elected, Ivereigh was well placed to do the first serious biography of the pope. By calling Francis a “radical” in his subtitle Ivereigh does not mean to imply that he is theologically radical, in the sense the term is often understood. Like John XXIII, the new pope is fairly conventional theologically. Francis is radical because, for Ivereigh, he represents a return to the roots of Christianity. His radical simplicity, his deep and abiding concern for the poor and marginalized, his prophetic insistence on justice for the oppressed, and his eager outreach to those outside of the Christian world all reflect the church at its missional best.

Ivereigh demonstrates that these concerns are not new ones for Francis. Raised as the son of working class, immigrant parents in a lower middle class community in Buenos Aires, Francis developed his common touch and deep sympathy for the poor early in his life. He was well known in Argentina for his Spartan way of life. His apartment was small, his office tiny. He encouraged his priests to live with similar simplicity among the poor they served. He often found himself in conflict with the powerful in Argentina, especially when their actions made the lives of the poor even worse. His decision to live in a Vatican guest house rather than the plush papal apartments was entirely consistent with his life in Buenos Aires. His decision to remove the German bishop who spent millions of Euros refurbishing his residence was also consistent with his earlier practices! When he spoke movingly during his first homily as pope of the pope’s responsibility “to protect all of God’s people and embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important,” Ivereigh reports that Christoph Shonborn, Cardinal of Vienna, was in tears. “Tim,” he told Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, “he speaks like Jesus.” Dolan replied, “Chris, I think that’s his job description.”

Francis during the first years of his papacy has taken the church out of a defensive stance, out of its fortress mentality. He has challenged its embattled, threatened and at times brutal hierarchy to spend less time worrying about the preservation of the institution and more time worrying about its mission. That mission includes people often marginalized by the church: divorced people, homosexuals, the lapsed and lost — even the atheists! “The church,” he declared, “is not an NGO, but a love story.” All this has made him immensely popular with nearly everyone except the Vatican old guard. According to Ivereigh they are fearful of control slipping through their fingers and are determined to resist the new pope. More than once they have had to endure a tongue-lashing from Francis. But there are many in the Vatican, according to Ivereigh, who know the hidebound curia needs to change and are quietly supportive of Francis.

I entitled this review “The Covenant pope?” In what sense could Francis be considered “Covenant”? Reading Ivereigh’s biography it struck me that one could easily call Francis a pietist. Clearly he values people over theological correctness. Although traditional in his theology he is not afraid to engage, receive, support and love those whose practice and theology are very different from his own. Like our pietist forebears he is concerned for the poorest and most desperate of people. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoners, and schooling the ignorant are all part of his commitment to the gospel. He prefers the ordinary over the elaborate, the simple over the complex. And it could certainly be said of Francis that he is “a companion of all them that fear thee.” The Covenant church historically has been a body committed to all of those things. In an evangelical world often characterized by paranoia and theological correctness we have, while theologically traditional, sat loose to such conventions. We have kept the windows open when others were looking for ways to shut them. Whether we will endure the perennial pressures to conform to the wider evangelical world remains to be seen.

Ivereigh’s book is surely not the last biography of Francis to be written. But it is an admirable and engaging first report on a remarkable man who, if he lives long enough, may reform not only the Roman Catholic Church, but call the rest of the church — protestant, evangelical, pentecostal and orthodox — back to the roots of the church’s mission. May God give him the time to do so.